Can Old Testament Principles Guide a New Testament Christian?

What role does the Old Testament play for a New Testament Christian?

After reading “Freedom of Religion Doesn’t Mean What Some Want It to Mean,” (Msg-2-Mar-2012) a Tennessee subscriber wrote and asked: “A difficult question to answer is how we should treat Hebrew Scripture.  I'd appreciate your thoughts on that.”

It is a very relevant question in today’s virulent political/religious atmosphere, where biblical literalists believe they can quote any verse from anywhere in the Bible without any reference to its context and original audience.

As a Christian, the Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament) teaches me two primary things:

1) God and History: The importance of the role of history in comprehending the continual presence of God in my life, and the comprehension of the tension created when my Ego desires to formalize the process of knowing the Spirit of the Lord.

2) An Appreciation for Understanding the Clarion Message of Jesus the Christ: “John [the Baptist], who was in prison, heard what Christ was doing, and sent his own disciples to him with this message: ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect some other?’ Jesus answered, ‘Go, and tell John what your hear and see: the blind recover their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the poor are hearing the good news – and happy is the man who does not find me a stumbling block.’” [Matthew 11: 2-6].  

God and History

The Old Testament teaches me to view God in history, just like the Israelites who could not separate their God from their history. As I stated in Chapter 5 of my book (How the Bible became the Bible, ISBN 978-0-7414-2993-3):

“The Hebrews could not conceive of their history without thinking of their God. Neither could they conceive of their God without thinking of their history. The history that revealed God was the religion of Israel. From this collection of tribal roots came a loose cultic confederation of related tribes. During the Exodus they were forged into an idea of one people under one common God. God’s name was YHWH. That is their history. That is their religion.

In that gray area between the reporting of the history and the interpreting of that history the Israelites came to define (and redefine) God, as well as define (and redefine) themselves. The Old Testament account concerns the revelation of God—but it is in the concrete affairs and relationships of people that God makes himself known. God is not an abstract idea, some primeval “first cause” consisting of abstract ideas about him. The faith of the Old Testament is fundamentally historical in nature. Old Testament doctrines are events and historical realities—not abstract values and ideas existing in some sort of timeless realm. God’s revelation did not come like a bolt out of the blue. It came through the crises and affairs of human life, interactions with other cultures, and the persons who perceived the divine dimension in those events. For example, no external historical study can demonstrate that the Exodus was an act of God. But to Israel, the “political” event was the medium through which God’s presence and purpose were disclosed” [pp 97-98]

What does this mean for me? To see God at work today I read the newspaper and look for incidences where the lame are healed, the blind see, the deaf hear, the infirmed are made whole – in general 21^st Century terms – where the weak are cared for and protected, whuch is how Jesus described Himself. Why would I believe that has changed?

I’m also aware of the importance of the constant tension between the whispers of the Spirit of the Lord and my desire to formalize the occurrence of my version of these whispers. This is the tension between the Prophets and the Priesthood that I also discussed in Chapter 5 under the headings of Ritualized Righteousness and Religious Exclusivity.

I discussed (pp. 99-100) how there was a

“…repeated desire to ‘go back’ to a more familiar, more ‘cut-and-dried’ form of religion—the certainty of a simple reward-and-punishment approach in dealing with Yahweh. But the prophets kept telling us: Righteousness or faithfulness is not a question of saying the correct prayer or offering the correct sacrifice at the correct time while wearing the correct clothes. Again, in twenty-first-century terms: It’s not a question of supporting the perceived “correct” things—America, free enterprise, prayer in school, constitutional amendments for the definition of a marriage—in order to defend God’s honor. It’s not a question of condemning the perceived “correct” things—gays, nudity, abortion, stem cell research, communism, right-to-die advocates. God doesn’t care about your causes. He wants your heart and mind and attitude, the prophets told us. All along, the prophets kept telling Israel: God doesn’t want ritual. He wants in your heart His sense of justice for the little guy….”

[There was also the danger of exclusivity espoused by the formal Priesthood – the …” desire to build cultural and spiritual walls around themselves—designed to keep outsiders “out” and to keep the “favored” people “in.” That way Yahweh couldn’t miss where he was to impart his blessings. He would always know where to find his people: Look for those that are circumcised; look for those that honor me with their tithes and first fruits; look for those that can invoke the Torah; look for those that wouldn’t miss a festival at the temple if their lives depended on it. Of course, the prophets were telling the Hebrews that Yahweh wasn’t looking for those things. He was looking for those that … do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with him”.

For me, in these two aspects of the Old Testament the Christian’s heritage within the roots of Judaism is strong, respected and clear.

The Clarion Message of Jesus the Christ  

However, knowledge and respect for the Old Testament’s focus on the little guy also enables me to fully appreciate Jesus’ statement when He said, “I am the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.” (Note: He did not say He was the fulfillment of the formal Jewish Priesthood customs, rites, and rituals).  We believe Jesus was sinless in the eyes of God – not so He could to save us from His Father’s legal wrath – but to put Him in a position to alter the existing Hebrew Law and its significance. He did just that, giving us His three great commandments:

(1) Love the Lord with all your heart, strength, soul, and mind, and (2) Love your neighbor as yourself. (Lev. 19: 16-18, 33-34; Mark 12: 28-34)

(3) Love each other as I have loved and served you (John 13: 12-17; I John 3: 21-23 He also said, in John 14:15, “…if you love me you will obey my commandments.”

The Old Testament scriptures describe a society that was very patriarchal, cut and dried, ritualistic, and not un-similar to existing Semitic forms of Islam and Old Testament-bound Christian fundamentalist groups. There are certainly times in my life today when I am drawn to adopt a straightforward ritualized approach to morality or my sense of righteousness. Whenever that occurs, e.g., “so-and-so deserved what s/he got, after all it’s an eye for an eye,” I know that my Ego is trying to get me to ignore the commandments the Lord gave me. I know my Ego is trying to get me back to a simple reward-and-punishment approach to deal with my perception of God.

Love the Lord with all my being, Love all as myself, and Love and serve others as He did. After all, these are His commandments for me. For me to concentrate or venerate Old Testament approaches to living my life, e.g., using the Ten Commandments, diminishes much of Jesus’ life and message.

Thanks for listening and feel free to share this message with family, friends or acquaintances.

Don

#1 April, 2012

Freedom of Religion Doesn’t Mean What Some Want It to Mean

It is absolutely no coincidence that freedom of (and from) religion is the very first of the agreed-to 10 Constitutional Amendments referred to as the Bill of Rights.

In the mid-19^th Century Alexis de Toqueville (1805-1859), a French historian and philosopher, toured the United States to see for himself how our fledgling democratic republic was working. The results of his observations appeared in his signature work, Democracy in America, published in 1835 (Vol. 1) and 1840 (Vol. 2).

One of his significant contributions was his observation concerning the impending opportunity of “…the majority raising formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion,” if, in fact, the democratic process spilled over from America’s arena of politics to the arena of everyday social life. This idea of de Toqueville’s led, later, Lord Acton (British Historian, 1834-1902) to coin the famous phrase: “The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority….” 

In his opinion de Toqueville saw the very detrimental possibility in our society that voting on political/legal/economic policies would morph into similar “voting” on social/cultural/personal values as some form of un-official national policy. His complete observation was: “In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers [someone may write or think] what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.” Remember, this was 180 years ago.

Watching some of the debates for the GOP presidential nomination and hearing some of the commentaries (both conservative – FOX – and progressive – MSNBC), I am struck by how much the religious views of our candidates play in the nomination/election process. It’s as if voters want to hear how religious and spiritual our elected (or nominated) officials say they are. How utterly inappropriate this is, according to our Constitution. As stated by Phillip E. Johnson (American Educator, 1940 -) “The restriction of religion to private life therefore does not … threaten the vital interests of the majority religion, if there is one, and it protects minority religions from the tyranny of the majority.”

This raises, for me, the question: Why is the opinion (to use de Toqueville’s term) of religion so critically important in an election cycle?

My initial answer? Fear and Ignorance. To assuage their fear and the world their fear thinks it sees, folks perceive their religious “world view” as paramount in their decision-making. They have to find something that will provide them with a certainty of faith. They have found that certainty – not in their personal transformation and acceptance in the Kingdom of God – but in the literal words of the Bible. Any verse anywhere in the Bible is the Word of God, and if verses contradict each other, then that’s an illustration of the mystery of God.

I discussed this issue in my book (pages 345-46) under the heading of “Recognizing the Dangers of Bibliolatry.”

“There is always a tension between the faith itself and our attempt to communicate it in a rational language at a given historical period. A relatively static authoritarianism, either of the Roman Catholic type or fundamentalist/evangelical type, so confuses the authority of the Church, the Bible, and the faith of the people that the tension, which is between God, as we understand God, and our human understanding, is removed. Without that tension the doors are opened to idolatry – in this case a blind worship of the Bible itself – or Bibliolatry.”

As Karen Armstrong pointed out in her book, The History of God, fundamentalists cannot conceive that I experience and think about God differently than they, which may be different from that Abraham experienced as a middle Bronze Age nomad or as Paul experienced as a first-century Jewish Roman citizen.

Back to an election cycle: It seems fearful religious conservatives have extended that belief-form (everybody everywhere thinks of God in the same way) to apply the Founding Fathers. Surely, Franklin, Jefferson and Paine, all of whom referred to “God,” must believe as we biblical literalists believe. The problem is they didn’t. They were essentially Deists. God was the prime (or first) mover. The Creator. God didn’t interfere in personal lives and liberty. Jefferson’s Bible had been all crossed-out except for those passages, especially parables, which began “Jesus said....“

When biblical literalists use a quote from Isaiah or Deuteronomy to justify their actions/beliefs they are denying the message of Jesus the Christ. He said He was the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. His was the new message from God. The Gospel. The Good News – the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear. He gave us three commandments to follow, replacing the Ten Commandments of the Israelites.

But religious conservatives cling to the Old Testament and its Ten Commandments. It’s simpler. It’s easier. But it’s incorrect, and it’s a grave error when it’s used as a litmus test for politicians.

To elevate the Bible in ways that overshadow the Gospel of the Lord is a supreme sacrilege. To pursue a political end of enacting legislative laws to ensure the apparent “sanctity” of the United States so God will once again bless us above all other nations is an act of unbelievable un-love in the name of the God of love.

Thanks for listening and, as always, feel free to share this message with my blessings.

Don

#2 March, 2012

The Damnation of Unconnectedness

I think the more "sophisticated" we've become, the more stupid we act - the dumber we've gotten. 

The following quote is from the novel The Dreaming by Barbara Wood, Random House, Inc., New York, 1991, Pages 36, 42.  [After seeing some Aborigines disappear off the road, Joanna, new to Australia, asked Hugh where they were going. He answered,] “’I’ve heard that this road used to be what they called a songline. Maybe that’s why we ran into them here.’

“’A songline?’

“’I’m not sure I can explain it to you,’ he said. ‘Songlines are part of the Aborigines’ sacred lore, their beliefs. It’s taboo for them to speak about sacred things, especially to a white man, and so there is little we know about them. But as near as I can determine, songlines are like invisible tracks. They mark the routes the Aborigine ancestors walked, thousands of years ago, and on up until fairly recently – thirty five years ago anyway [the novel is set in the late 19^th Century], even less in some parts. Songlines are sort of invisible roads, crisscrossing the continent. Apparently way back the ancestors walked all over Australia, and as they walked they sang out the names of everything they encountered. They believed they were singing the world into existence. The Aborigines believe that song is existence – to sing is to live.  And that is why, too, to the Aborigines, everything in nature is sacred – rocks, trees, waterholes.’ (p. 36)

“’…The Aborigines believe the dead are always with us. They go back to the Dreaming, but they are still with us.’

“’The Dreaming?'

“Hugh picked up a stick and stirred the embers. ‘It’s a concept white men have little understanding of, including myself…. As nearly as I can judge, the Dreamtime, or the Dreaming, is what the Aborigines call the distant past, when the first people walked the earth and sang everything into creation. Their spirituality is very earthbound. From the earth we come, by the earth we are sustained, and when we die, to the earth we return. To wound the earth is to wound ourselves. That’s why the Aborigines never developed farming or mining or anything that altered the environment in any way. They were not just part of nature, they were nature.’” (p. 42)

In an earlier message, “The Unity of Life,” December 4, 2011, I wrote: “Not too long ago I was out cleaning up the wet-weather creek that flows… through our property…. I was cleaning out sticks, wild water grasses and weeds. As I would pull up a clump of vegetation, the roots, all mired in creek muck, contained all sorts of bugs, beetles, and other tiny critters. Each clump of muck was its own little universe. It was a remarkable moment, as I tried to imagine life in that clump of muck from the perspective of the inhabitants.

In a short while I knew the muck would dry, the critters would either die or scatter, and the water vegetation would die. One day the creek muck is alive as its own little world and the next it is apparently dead. What happened? What's missing? What the heck is Life, anyway?

… Indigenous cultures have had an intrinsic reverence for this thing called Life. Attributed to their Great Spirit, Life was Life – whether in stones, deer, themselves, frogs, birds, plants, rain, or snow. Life was a mystery and was revered. Not some of life was revered some of the time. All life all the time. There was no hierarchy in Life. Human life was not more valuable than animal or plant life. Life was Life. It was a mystery. It was honored…. They had no more right to be alive than a stone or a maize (corn) plant. This was not an intellectual deduction from repeated observations. This was embedded in their hunting, defending, family life, crafting, ceremonies. In short, it was their culture; it was who they were. They were at one with their world. Just a piece. Not superior. Not a user. Simply an interactive part of the whole system of Life…. They were not above the environment; they were not users of the environment; they were an integral part of the environment.”

Just like the Aborigines.

I think the more “sophisticated” we have become as a civilization, the more separated we have become from nature. The more separated from nature, the more separated from our true Selves. The more separated from our Selves, the more we see people as simply tools and resources to be used – just like we see our environment as something to use.

On NPR recently my wife and I heard a story of a woman who was transforming vacant lots in Detroit into small vegetable or herb gardens – growing native Michigan plants and herbs. She’s involving whole neighborhoods in the growing and care of these small fresh food sources. The local residents are loving it!

She told of how a wee tot asked her, “Can we plant the trees that grow pizza?”

In some ways it’s a cute statement of childlike innocence. In other ways it’s a serious damnation of our society’s total irreverence and lack of connection to the natural world of which we are very much a part.

The more intelligent we have become the dumber we have gotten. We have come to believe we are bigger than Mother Nature. We treat the environment as an unlimited reserve of materials just lying around,  ripe for the picking. Unfortunately, that disconnected view of our Earth and its resources has led us to treat people the same way – raw material to be used and abused. People are now simply renters, day laborers, consumers, a steady stream of patients, congregants, vote totals, cashiers, or ignorant drivers.

I personally like the spiritual world-view of the Aborigines better. It’s more intelligent. It’s healthier. I am more spiritual when I am connected to the Earth.

Thanks for listening and, as always, you may forward this to those whom you believe might find this discussion stimulating.

Don

#1 February, 2012 

How Many Commandments Are There - Really?

A bumper sticker I’ve seen stated: “Jesus Called. He Wants His Religion Back.” Cute. Short. Punchy. And I believe it to be pretty true.

Jesus’ church or religion, if He had actually established one, would espouse His Gospel. 

Well. what was Jesus Gospel, or Good News? When we read what Jesus said, according to the Gospels, we look at the Sermon on the Mount (including the Beatitudes and the redefining of some of the Ten Commandements), His parables, and His healings. That’s where He defined His message – in teachings, deeds, and healings. His message? The Kingdom of God (or Heaven) is at hand. Repent. See for yourself – the lame walk, the hungry are fed, the blind see, the deaf hear. This Kingdom is all around you and in you and you will know it if you will but open your eyes and see.

Here is the way I paraphrased that message in my book:

The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent. Quit looking at the world ‘out there’ as the source of your problems or the source of your solutions.  Look inside you. The Kinddom is already there and has always been there. The Kingdom is now, and now is always eternal. Just as leaven is invisible, yet changes the nature of dough, the Kingdom of God in your heart will change your perception of reality. This will change your world. What was important now isn’t, and what wasn’t important now is. The first will become last and the last first. The exalted will be humbled and the humbled exalted. Your world will turn upside down. You need to recognize it, acknowledege it, and grow with it. I, myself, am involved with this Kingdom. (How the Bible became the Bible, p. 118; For those interested, Appendix B of the book  contains a list (compiled by Dr. John Dominic Crossan in his book, The Historical Jesus) of sayings and parables that come as close as we can determine to be actual words Jesus said).

After stating that He was the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets, He issued Three Commandments:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; Love your neighbor as yourself (followed by the parable of the good Samaritan, where He defined ‘your neighbor’ as anyone in need). Toward the end of His ministry He issued a Third Commandment to His disciples: Love each other as I have loved and served you.

But I don’t see Jesus’ Three Commandments hanging on church walls. Instead, I see the Ten Commandments. I see them in front of churches. I see them as posters in churches where I go to AA meetings, Course in Miracles meetings, or funerals of friends. I read occasionally of communities or States that want to put the Ten Commandments on the Courthouse (or Statehouse) lawns.

This makes me wonder what is the role of the Ten Commandments for Christians, and where do Jesus' Commandments fit in?

Each of the major Old Testament Hebrew groups traced their lineage and identity to a distinct tribal god that belonged to one of the three Great Hebrew Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. Even though there were differences, there remained a great deal of similarity among these loosly connected tribes. During the Exodus from Egypt and the revelation of the Ten Commandments, Moses was able to coalesce the Twelve Tribes of Hebrews into a single people – the Israelites. The Ten Commandments became the foundation for all of Jewish Law and tradition – both written and oral.

During Jesus' ministry He commented, as a good Jew, on these Commandments and, at times, altered them. For example, the Sabbath was made for Man, not Man for the Sabbath; You have heard it said it is a violation of the Commandments to commit adultery, but I say to you that anyone who has lusted in their heart for a woman has committed adultery. Rather than discussing rite, ritual, custom, and doctrine Jesus simply talked about looking for the fruits of the Spirit and used a tree as an analogy. Where we find good fruits, we find a healthy tree. Barren or skimpy fruits indicate an unhealthy tree.

He then went on to give us the Two Great Commandments followed, toward the end of His ministry, by the Third Commandment.

So, as followers of Jesus the Christ, are Christians defined as groups/congregations trying to obey Jesus' Three Commandments or are Christians now required to follow Thirteen Commandments? Why don't I see Christian churches or Christian communities put the Three Commandments of Jesus on the walls of their churches or in their memorial gardens? 

For Christains to keep venerating the Ten Commandments is to keep vibrant the roots of Jewish law in Christian belief, doctrine, or dogma. These laws – focused around the concepts of purification and sacrifice – were the very 1500-year-old Jewish concepts that Jesus was redefining during His ministry. By venerating the Ten Commandments are we, in effect, denigrating Jesus’ message?

The Ten Commandments are very short and specific – sort of like sound bites. Jesus' Three Commandments are pretty open-ended. They are definitely not a one-size-fits-all set of "rules." It takes constant thought and evaluation to implement the Three Commandments on a daily bassis. They are certainly not cut-and-dried formulas. They are pretty "fuzzy," as I referred to them in my book.  We don’t like fuzzy suggestions that are to help us determine our daily behavior – especially when we believe the stakes are whether or not we end up in Heaven or Hell. We like discrete, definable rules that reassure us we’re on our way to Heaven.

As a guide to daily living are Christians to obey the Ten Commandments, the Three Commandments, or all Thirteen?